How the Toyota Camry and Martin Truex Jr. shocked the NASCAR world in 2017

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The party could be heard all the way to Denver.

Fresh off their second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship, this time with Martin Truex Jr., luminaries from Toyota Racing Development lined the cabana hospitality area overlooking pit road at Homestead-Miami Speedway in November to pour beer, cut cake and pop the bubbly.

The celebration capped one of the greatest seasons for a manufacturer in NASCAR’s postmodern (Nextel/Sprint/Monster Energy Cup) era. Truex outdueled Kyle Busch in the closing laps to complete Toyota’s 1-2 championship finish, a perfect ending to a near-perfect season. The 2018 Camry, which made its debut in 2017, won 16 times in 36 starts and left the competition reeling.

History won’t remember the Toyota Camry as NASCAR’s most dominant entry, not like the Hudson Hornet, the Dodge Charger Daytona or the Plymouth Belvedere. At least not after one season. It stands on the next tier simply because it wasn’t supposed to be this dominant.

NASCAR regulations are designed to prevent one manufacturer from commanding such an advantage. Even though the series is a half-decade removed from the common-template Car of Tomorrow, NASCAR officials have crafted an extensive rulebook promoting parity. And for the first five months of the 2017 season, that’s exactly what NASCAR fans were treated to, with all three manufacturers scoring wins and providing the close competition executives in Daytona and Charlotte salivate over.

Martin Truex Jr. won the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship at the age of 37 after having had just one previous top-10 points finish in his 14-year Cup career. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Then the calendar flipped to July, and Toyota found something that left Chevrolet and Ford in the dust — especially by NASCAR standards. Truex and Denny Hamlin won back-to-back races at Kentucky Speedway and New Hampshire Motor Speedway before Kyle Busch raced to another win at Pocono Raceway, providing Toyota with three wins in four races over 30 days.

Ford driver Brad Keselowski was among the Camry’s loudest critics all season, claiming in September that NASCAR hadn’t allowed a manufacturer to get this far ahead since the 1970s. He doubled down on the sentiment in the hours following his championship defeat at Homestead, adding Ford and Chevrolet “never stood a chance.”

“When that car rolled out at Daytona, and I think we all got to see it for the first time, I think there were two reactions,” Keselowski said. “One, we couldn’t believe NASCAR approved it; and two, we were impressed by the design team over there. ... I don’t think anyone ever had a shot this year the second that thing got put on the racetrack and approved.

“It kind of felt like Formula 1, where you had one car that made it through the gates, heads and tails above everyone, and your hands are tied because you’re not allowed to do anything to the cars in those categories that NASCAR approves, to really catch up.”

Toyota Racing Development president David Wilson jokes that no one sold more showroom Camrys last year than Keselowski, calling him “our biggest fan.” But Wilson maintains the success didn’t come as easy as they made it look in 2017.

The Toyota Camry found its way to victory lane 16 times in 36 points races in 2017. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Wilson pointed out that Ford and Keselowski actually set the bar early in the season and that his teams needed to close the deficit to make it a fight. In fact before the July stretch where Toyota got real hot, Truex had only won twice and Joe Gibbs Racing had been completely shut out of victory lane. Toyota’s summer gains came at Ford’s expense—it only won twice more, likely prompting Keselowski’s frustration.

“NASCAR does a (great) job defining the box we’re supposed to work in,” Wilson said. “And it’s up to each manufacturer to make the most of it. I’m not going to apologize one bit for our success.”

For Toyota, though, the “box” was equally self-imposed as much as NASCAR-mandated. The Cup Camry was a unique entry in the sport’s history — developed in parallel with the 2018 production Camry.

Kevin Hunter is the president of Toyota’s Calty Design Research branch in Newport Beach, California, a fancy way to say he is the OEM’s chief car designer. Nothing gets pushed through an assembly line until he sketches it in his notepad or on his desktop—including the company’s NASCAR entries.

Once the production model’s design had been approved, it was up to Hunter and his staff to “exaggerate” its features onto the NASCAR machine—doing so in a way both compliant and competitive under the series’ scrupulous microscope.

“We’ve been working with NASCAR for a while,” Hunter said. “We know generally what areas we’re allowed to work in. But we’re pretty aggressive. We’re constantly sending them things to ask ‘would this work’ and so forth.”

Toyota Racing Development president David Wilson, left, was along for an incredible ride with Furniture Row Racing and Martin Truex Jr., right. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Much of the rear end is spec between all three manufacturers, a non-issue to Hunter since the cars’ front ends “are the money shots you see on TV.” So most attention was placed on the grille, front bumper and side pods. The race version is both lower and wider than its production sibling, meaning the biggest challenge was designing a front fascia that checked all the boxes.

Lost in Keselowski’s campaigning was that, in addition to NASCAR’s approval, Toyota also needed both Chevrolet and Ford to sign off on their rival’s latest model. The Camry required wind tunnel testing with representatives from the series and all three manufacturers present. The Camry was approved after its first pass through the Aerodyn wind tunnel in Mooresville, North Carolina.

But none of that explains why the car heated up with the summer and never cooled off. Historically every time a car is that dominant, it raises questions about what a team or manufacturer discovered to put them over the top.

Through the years, rivals like Keselowski have pointed to tampered splitters or rear-alignment skew; every team works in those areas to find speed until NASCAR tells them to stop. But that’s not how Toyota took what is essentially a spec car and nearly swept the playoffs with it. Obviously, Toyota isn’t going to share proprietary information while a car is still competing, but Wilson (above, at left) points to partnerships with Gibbs and Colorado-based Furniture Row Racing as the reason for their success.

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Former Hendrick Motorsports crew chief Andy Graves joined TRD as technical director in 2006 and is considered the visionary behind Toyota’s on-track performance. Toyota was the first manufacturer to bring dynamic vehicle simulators to NASCAR. That, combined with the know-how JGR developed during its time with Pontiac and Chevy (1991-2007), created a NASCAR superpower. And all of that went into the 2017 season Camry, the company’s magnum opus.

Veteran engineer Tony Eury Jr. spent a decade with Chevrolet, as crew chief for cousin Dale Earnhardt Jr., Michael Waltrip and Danica Patrick. He’s seen dominance like this before, when the Bowtie Brigade won 22 races, and nine of the final 10 in the playoffs, back in 2004. He said Toyota’s advantage comes from providing the best total engineering package in the garage.

“Back in the day, you knew Ford could get you the best engines, Chevy would get you the best aero and Dodge was developing pretty good chassis,” Eury said. “So you took those advantages and worked to improve on the areas you knew you were behind in. It was compromise, and that was some of the best racing we ever had. Now, (Toyota) is just the best all-around deal.”

An argument could be made that Toyota was simply ahead of the curve.

The Camry was the first new car developed and released following NASCAR rule changes slashing the overall downforce number by nearly 50 percent (1,400 pounds) over the past two seasons. This reduction was primarily achieved by shortening the splitter’s leading edge and mandating a smaller-size spoiler.

The Toyota that made its debut in 2017 was the only car designed with the current regulations in mind. Everyone else had to modify their existing bodies and hope for the best while designing their own next-generation entry.

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Kevin Harvick agreed with fellow Ford driver Keselowski — they shared Ford’s two late-season wins — in that regard, claiming the new Camry made the Ford Fusion and Chevrolet SS obsolete. “We have a car designed to have a huge spoiler in the back and is definitely the oldest car on the racetrack compared to the other manufacturers,” he said.

Aerodynamics is the pursuit of balance. The entire car has to work together to find speed. If one element is modified, it changes the entire dynamic of the car. Take the side skirts, one of the elements teams are allowed to work in when designing a car. Officially known as vertical rocker panels, side skirts help seal the area between the bottom of a car’s chassis and the track surface, limiting airflow beneath the vehicle.

Toyota modified the flare of its skirts in 2017. Even if most insiders discount that move’s significance in isolation, it may have contributed to a more balanced overall package — and balance is the key to success in NASCAR. In any case, Toyota’s haste in producing a new car designed for the loss of so much downforce under the new rules paid off.

Still, one terrific season doesn’t make a truly great racing car. It needs to find sustained success over multiple years. The real test for the Camry is going to come this season against a new Chevrolet entry, the Camaro ZL1, and the new Hawk-Eye inspection system that Ford and Keselowski believe will finally keep all three manufacturers in check.

The new system takes a full-body scan of the car, offering the most precise readings of aerodynamic potential yet. Keselowski believes Toyota was able to sneak certain illegal body modifications through the previous inspection system last season, providing JGR and FRR with an edge. (One engineer speculated that tinkering with the wheel wells subtly enough to pass inspections, for example, may have given the car an advantage.)

“When the cars are submitted to NASCAR, they all have to have the same performance criteria, but there hasn’t yet been a system to enforce that you’re racing it,” Keselowski said. “The Hawk-Eye system is intended to fully enforce it.”

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For his part, Wilson believes there is more to the Camry than just the body and that his teams will perform even with the new inspection system (well, Truex’s Camry dd fail inspection three times this year at Atlanta on Feb. 23).

“We’ll see in 10 years,” Wilson said. “Historically, you see trends where everyone takes turns at the top. I also believe if you work in the right areas, you should be able to remain competitive. The other OEMs are going to make gains.”

The key for Wilson, if he wants to keep partying in South Beach each November, is to not buy into the hype.

“You can trick yourself into thinking you have magic in a bottle,” Wilson said. “As soon as you do, you’re on the path to mediocrity. The new Camaro will be competitive and Ford still put two cars in the Championship Race last season. We know we have work to do.”

No doubt the Camry enjoyed among the great seasons in NASCAR history last year. In time, the Camry might become the greatest NASCAR entry ever produced. The legacies of the Hudson Hornet, Charger Daytona and Belvedere are all within sight, but those chapters have yet to be written.

Matt Weaver
- Matt Weaver is an associate motorsports editor at Autoweek. Before becoming a journalist, he was a dirt track racer and short track cheeseburger connoisseur.
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